Jackson Jambalaya

Yes, well, money is the only incentive these days.
Did you know that once upon a time, every child got a polio vaccine for free? Jonas Salk's focus wasn't his own wealth. Indeed, he used his resources, to start the Salk Institute. Medicine wasn't about selling to the highest bidder, but about conquering disease and making people well.
A 20% profit over cost was considered success and generated sufficient wealth even a few decades ago. Anything more was considered obscene.
You know...sorta like the law was once about justice instead of one-upmanship.
Medicine and the law were professions, not businesses and the reward was a lasting contribution for your efforts through meaningful work Respectable business was about quality and endurance and making " the better mousetrap or meeting the greatest needs. Now business is about making the disposable and quickly obsolete for the quick buck.
Accomplishment in a life well lived and honor, not baubles to show off.
And, even more astounding, as a result of values we once held, there were wealthy men who were not considered to be socially acceptable because of their poor character and lack of honor in their dealings. They found it impossible to buy respectability.
Everything's for sale now. Killing people with shoddy products or killing people with bad drugs or killing people by making medicine unaffordable is all ok now. Just make sure the price put on human life is less than the profit margin.

Corona-chan isn't even close to finished killing fat greedy humans.

We need to be happy that groups other then the government are working toward a vaccine for Corona. If our government were running it, a "Bipartisan" (Government code for losing proposition) committee would fight for a year or two before someone with no experience would be appointed "Corona Czar". Ten years later, we would have a vaccine, after $87,853,623,533.42 had been doled out to whoever had the most faithful sister in law, or whoever owed the most favors.

NOTICE: These were the comments of a "Too Much Government" proponent.

I think 8:19 nailed it. It seems to me we are getting a glimpse behind the mask of respectability into the systemic rot of human character.

8:19 and 10:03, we live in a capitalist country. It is the obligation of the boards for these companies to maximize profits. If you want to live in some socialist country with free healthcare, move to Europe or Canada.

8:19 is pretty on point. Once corporations really became entrenched in medicine things began to go down hill. They saw the opportunity to make it a business instead of a service. Now with big pharmaceutical companies, the consolidation of big insurance companies, and big hospital associations (aka integrated managed care consortiums like kaiser perm, cleveland clinic, etc), the only focus is how to make a dollar off the patient's back. Small private practice clinics that were managed by the physicians are now well on the way out. It's too difficult for them. The health care system is set up for the big corporations with the ability to afford a high overhead. Small clinics can't afford to do the paperwork and shift through all the new rules and regulations. People talk about needing "health care reform", and I dont necessarily disagree with them. I just think it's the wrong term. Our health care system is the best in the world (seriously). We need health insurance reform.

@everyone complaining about capitalism
Your comments would be more on point if you could point to a socialist government that has handled it better. We ain't perfect, but it's the best thing going. And nothing is truly free to us, except the gospel, which cost God his only Son.

1025, you do realize Gordon Gekko went to prison at the end of the movie, as did the inspiration for that character, don’t you? -10:03

@11:39 most democratic, capitalistic first world countries have a system to provide health care to their citizens that makes ours look like a joke. Sweden, Canada, Germany, England etc etc. The taxes they pay for their health care are much less than the premiums we pay to our insurance providers. And they don't get requests for tests and procedures denied right and left like we do either. Insurance companies, big pharma and big hospitals answer to their boards and their shareholders, not the patients. They could give two shits about what the patient thinks. The way things are set up in the US now, a person has no choice but to buy a health insurance policy or rack up thousands of dollars in medical dept if you get sick. That's not capitalism, that's exploitation.

And how much of that is subsidized by our defense spending? They take the part of GDP that would've gone for defense and use it for other goodies.

@12:56
I worked in a Detroit hospital as a surgeon for 9 years. I can assure you that the Canadians that can afford to pay cash for medical care and treatment all come to the US... hips knees etc... the wait is ling for that care in Canada. They come to the US. Same in England. The wait is what the problem is.

@11:39
From personal knowledge, the idea that Canada's or England's is better than the USA is a gross misstatement. Patients are shuffled into a line and depending on their age and condition, do not get needed procedures. While some aspects of their system may be 'better', from an overall perspective, it is demonstrably less effective at providing care. When is the last patient who flew to Germany to get an operation? What is the death rate per capita for any of the socialist countries. And lumping Sweden in as a socialist country is a dated perspective. Might read up on what's happened there since 1970.

"Indeed, modern Sweden’s success can be seen as more a shift away from the far left policy that predominated from the 1960s till the end of the century. During recent years Swedish policies have shifted strongly to the center-right, placing the once dominant Social Democrats in deep crisis."

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002287-sweden-a-role-model-capitalist-reform

Again, our system is not perfect. Improvements could be made. But it far outshines the other models. I expect we'll fare this storm better than the other countries you mention. And if not, I still consider myself blessed to live in the USA.

FWIW, the data shows that countries like the UK (which was late to the "lockdown" party) and Sweden (which still hasn't) are now experiencing a rapid increase in the number of cases. Both now have more cases per 1000s of people than even Mississippi (but all are in the 12-1300 per mil range). OTOH, states that locked down sooner and more completely, like Texas and California, have half that rate per 1000s of population. Granted, population concentration/dispersion played some part, but it is becoming pretty clear that "lockdown" and a population that follows basic precautions works. But sensible people already knew that. or if they didn't already know it, they were sensible enough to listen to the people that did know and told them so rather than listen to a bunch of nonsense from their fellow idiots on social media.

@9:36 is correct. Our government bureaucracy would inhibit the development of a vaccine by at least a year. We will see other countries rapidly develop, test, and roll out a vaccine while our CDC is still scratching its ass. I just hope they make enough to smuggle some over here.

The US system has now resulted in hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage because they were laid off as a result of coronavirus. I dont think that has happened in other countries with better health care systems.